The present invention relates to a cleaning device applied to flats of a conventional revolving flat card, more particularly it relates to a cleaning device for preventing discharge of short fibers or dust from the card into the atmosphere of the carding room by an air stream discharged from spaces between a plurality of flat bars.
To prevent the aforementioned discharge of short fibers or dust, several devices have been developed. One of these is disclosed in the Japanese patent publication Sho 40 (1965) -- 26214, wherein the revolving flats are completely covered with a cover so as to form a sealed enclosure. Air is then blown into the sealed enclosure from one side thereof and is discharged from the other side of the sealed enclosure by a suction air stream so that short fibers and dust, which are blown off through spaces between each two adjacent flat bars, are discharged by the above-mentioned suction air stream. However, this device is not practical because a very large cover is necessary to cover the entire space occupied by the flats and, further, additional elements such as a powerful suction blower and a filter means, etc., are necessary. Consequently, the device becomes large and the construction thereof becomes complicated so that the installation cost is inevitably increased.
A simple device for a purpose similar to that of the aforementioned device is disclosed in the Japanese Utility Model publication Sho 48 (1973) -- 38117. In this device a sealing plate provided with an elastic plate secured to a side surface thereof is disposed on each flat bar so as to close each space between two adjacent flat bars for preventing the free discharge of an air stream containing short fibers and dust from the aforementioned space. However, in this case, since the sealing plate is mounted on back skin portion of the flat bar, it is very difficult to rigidly mount the sealing plate on the flat bar and such mounting of the sealing plate is very complicated and difficult. Further, if the flat bars are provided with a particular shape, it is possible that perfect covering of the free space between two adjacent flat bars by the sealing plate, at the working position of these flats, becomes impossible. Further, when it is necessary to grind the wires of the flats, or to change the used wires of the flats to new ones, the sealing plate must be removed from each flat bar.
The Japanese Utility Model publication Sho 49 (1974) -- 15215 discloses another new device to for a purpose similar to that of the above-mentioned prior art publications. In this device, a sealing member is disposed in the space between adjacent flat bars so as to seal the aforementioned space. However, the sealing member is mounted on the respective flats and, therefore, such sealng member disturbs free handling of the respective flats. When the used flats are replaced by fresh ones, the sealing member must be separated from the corresponding flat bars. Further, when grinding of the wires is necessary to shape the wires, the sealing members must be separated fromm their respective flat bars. In this device, it is impossible to cover the aforementioned spaces entirely so as to seal portions of each space at both sides of the flat bar in a perfect sealed condition. As a result the air stream containing short fibers and dust is blown out of the aforementioned side portions of each space.
The principal purpose of the present invention is to provide a cleaning device for preventing free discharge of short fibers or dust from the spaces between adjacent flat bars of a conventional revolving flat card into the atmosphere of the carding room, whereby the problems mentioned above with regard to the prior art cleaning devices may be solved.